From the Principal's desk
On Thursday 5th December, all Year 5 candidates for 2020 School Captains delivered their speeches in the Multi-Purpose Room to the whole school. It was evident that all students had prepared well and all spoke confidently. Following this the Year 2 to Year 5s voted for the school captains then dispersed to their House groups to listen to the speeches by the House Captain candidates. All students from Prep to Year 5 voted for house captains. Voting was conducted using the preferential voting system. Candidates for the School Captain positions were interviewed by myself. Successful candidates will be decided upon based on both the results of the student vote and their performance during the interview process. The 2020 House Captains and School Captains will be announced at the final assembly on Thursday 19th December. Badges will be presented and parents invited early in Term 1 2020.
As our school year draws to a close I reflect on a year that has been filled with wonderful achievements and great memories. This year a highlight has been our huge improvement in our NAPLAN results and our students Attitude to School Data. Our children are increasingly connected to our school and are feeling well supported.
We would like to formally farewell Suzanne Herlihy, fondly referred to as Mrs H by many children in the school, who is retiring at the end of this year. Sue first started at this school in 1997 having previously taught at Graham Street Special School, and Cobram Special Developmental School. We thank Sue for the contribution she has made to the school and I know she will be missed by many of our children and families. Shantelle Hives will also be leaving us this year and will continue her teaching career at Wilmot Road Primary School. We also say farewell to Krystin Mynard who has tutored our Koorie students this year and taken classes as a relief teacher. Krystin will be returning to her teaching position at Katunga Primary School. We also thank Shae Montgomery and Sarah Titchmarsh, our 2019 trainees, and wish them all the best in their future prospects.
Our classes for 2020 will be released on Thursday. With an increase of enrolments in the Year 3 & 4 area, we have had to change our class structure in that we now have the following classes: 2 Prep/1 classes, 1 Year 1/2 class, 1 2/3 class, 2 3/4 classes, and 2 5/6 classes. Our teachers will be working closely together next year in planning and will also be doing some team teaching. We have tried to meet all parental requests that have been submitted to us and contacted parents concerning placements that were not possible. I am absolutely confident in the capacity of all my teachers to deliver quality teaching and recent student outcome data, staff and parent opinion survey data confirms this. Our annual report will be presented to the school community early next year. We are certainly on our way to becoming a high performing school in literacy and numeracy.
I would like to invite our parents to our final assembly where we will reflect on the year that has been, say farewell to the students and teachers leaving us, present student awards, and finish with some Christmas cheer.